Spread of the super bugs

Professor Naresh Singhal says resistance to common medicines is growing, with the bigger issue now the hazards in our waterways.

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Drug resistance is one of the worst threats of our time, but it's a research blindspot in New Zealand. The threat is probably much greater than things like microplastics or PFAS - forever chemicals. But resistance to antibiotics and other drugs gets less attention and there's a considerably larger gap in our understanding.

Antimicrobial resistance directly caused the deaths of 1.27 million people globally in 2019, and that figure is projected to grow to 10 million deaths a year by 2050. In New Zealand, 330 deaths were caused by antimicrobial resistance in 2019.

My biggest fear is that an epidemic driven by drug resistance will hit our shores one day – and we won't be ready. Health professionals have been cautioned to prescribe fewer antibiotics, because bacteria are adapting to survive them. Farmers have been advised to reduce the amount of antibiotics they give animals, to slow the rise of resistance, which can pass from animals into humans.